


Thalia's Awakening

by sneebs



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 13:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15196091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sneebs/pseuds/sneebs
Summary: Thalia's experiences before the Fleece "did its job too well."





	Thalia's Awakening

Something had been wrong, something had been off, something had switched, and for some reason, I felt shallow, thinner, not connected.

I was drifting and distant, and suddenly, a rumbling mess of thoughts came smashing into my face. And then I became a drifting and distant rumbling mess of thoughts. 

I remember trying to remember. In that moment, I kept thinking- not really thinking the words out loud but more like  _feeling_  the words- “how did I get here? how did I get to this moment?” Struggling to grasp on to anything that made sense- anything. That moment had been terrifying. That day had been terrifying.

It was all super murky to me. Slogging through a whirlwind of senses and a new form. It was like trying to shape water into a sculpture- everything was slipping through my fingers. I didn’t know how I got there. I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know how long I had been wandering around in this swamp of a mind. 

My brain began to remember these… shifts. I remembered a feeling of- I don’t know how to describe it- being grounded. It was beautifully simple. It was like all I had to do was be in tune with the world around me, understand where I was, be aware of my feelings and think with my emotions and basic needs. Which actually sounds like a lot, but there was peace. Sometimes there was pain, but there was always peace, no matter what. 

That was actually the first shift. From being grounded in peace and happiness to being grounded in peace and pain. Really bad, horrible pain. I was dying. (It felt like deja vu, remembering that, that I was supposed to be dying. Double deja vu. Triple deja vu. Everything was deja vu, really, when thinking started coming in again)

Too much pain. I was going, almost gone- 

Another shift into light. A very pure shine of total light and radiance and health and warmth and feeling. It filled everywhere, everything, every piece, until everything was light, and there was another shift, and I  _was_ _light._  Until I wasn’t. Until I started solidifying, and something was off, something was switched, not right, and nothing was grounded, and something- I was so sure of it now- had been so, so wrong.

I remembered these shifts, drifting around in my chaos of emotion, feeling, darkness, light, thoughts-  ** _thoughts!?-_  **when a couple of pieces of myself, a whole collection somehow, just slid and clicked right into place. 

I noticed I was breathing.

I noticed I was thinking.

I remembered I was thinking.

Nothing was sleepy anymore.

About 97% of the chaos fell into order. I could smell. Feel the earth underneath me. There was somebody yelling, a whistle of the wind, and there was the world, and I was in it-

I remembered I could see.

Questions drowned my brain as I took in everything. There was blinding, blinding white. Then green. Then a face. Another face. More faces. Blue. Black. It was all slow motion- my hands twitched, my muscles ached to be used, I felt like I needed to get out of the dragging time, I needed to move, I need to be in action-

Where was I? How? Who? Who was I? Who was I? Who-

“Who-”

I could speak. My eyelids closed and opened heavily- looking back, it must have only been a few seconds, but so much happened in those few seconds that I almost was shocked into dying a second time.

There was this guy. He was talking to me, I guess, or about to. He leaned over, and really all I could see where these really, really green eyes that made me want to lean away or stand up and stare them down. 

They were really green. Too green.

There was a goat man. A satyr, I remembered-  _ **Grover**_. It was  _Grover_. My heart swelled. I  _recognized_ him. I recognized this  _place!_ There were two memories- memories of me knowing this earth, and the feel of the air, and being aware of the life and the action that ran near this area,

and another memory, one with the grass, and the sun, and the blue sky, and the hill, and summer-

And screams. And cackles in the air as they swooped down on us. The race to the top. A beautiful day ruined by a pack of hellhounds and a couple of lovely ladies in complete hag form. 

No. No, no no nononono no.

But I was still here, wasn’t I? I was still here. It must have been-

“The strangest dream-” I tried to say to everyone. I looked at the guy with the too-green eyes. 

“Dying,” I told him. I had been dying. Was I dead already? No. I knew that answer already. No, duh, stupid. You know this place. This isn’t the Underworld. But maybe… No, I  _had_  been dying. More than once, probably. Or, agh, at least I thought I was. Maybe-

I blinked. Maybe I had just… passed out. Thought I was dead. But something feels heavy. I feel heavy. I feel different. There’s something different, but I can't… The dreams had seemed so  _real_ \- but those are what dreams are, right? They seem real? Because they’re supposed to seem real? They could feel like only a second has gone by or years? But it doesn’t make sense. I remember the shifts. I remember feeling. I remember the peace I used to be in- the peace I used to  _be_ , although the feeling was fading from me now.  _I can’t understand_ , I wanted to scream.  _I don’t understand._

And I had been hurt. I’d been bitten. I was clawed. Stabbed. I was bleeding from the inside out. How-?

“-your name?” He had said, moments ago. He was looking at me expectantly. And when I looked back, something happened, another click. It was recognition. It happened in him. It happened in me. I suddenly knew. My name. Who I was. I just knew. 

And  I had to get myself together.

I took a deep breath and squinted, straightening up to look him dead in the eye, “I am Thalia, Daughter of Zeus.”

But he already knew. 

Luke.

Annabeth.

It came to me in a absolutely smacking jolt of pain.  _HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN?! If I was alive, then-_

My head snapped up. “Wait." 

Somehow there were people already putting me into standing-leaning position. The guy was there. Grover had rushed over to help. "Wait,” I said again. 

But everybody was now moving. The centaur seemed to finally be taking charge with a very worried, aghast look on his face, speaking to me, the guy, Grover, the other campers- what had Grover told me again? Chiron. This was Chiron. Camp Half Blood. LUKE. ANNABETH.

“Where are they?!” I whipped around. “Where’s Luke?! Annabeth!" 

"Thalia, it’s okay-”

I started for the centaur, ready to tell him off, ready to bust somebody in places nobody wanted to be busted- pretty rude of me, actually, but I wasn’t in the best state- if I didn’t get answers- “Tell me,” I began to demand. “Tell me-" 

I started sinking to the floor. Great. I was unable to walk. Everybody else rushed to get me back up, and I turned to Grover instead, "Tell me, now, Grover,  _now._ Did you get them across?  _Did you get them across?_ If you came back for me, and didn’t get them across, I swear to all the gods, I told you,  _I told you-”_

A girl I hadn’t been paying much attention to before stepped forward from behind the cent- Chiron. It was hesitant, at first, so I barely just noticed her, and then more confident, as she apparently decided something, walking over to me. She had curly blonde hair, and-

Her eyes were a deep, deep gray. Deeper than I remembered.

 _“Annabeth,"_ I didn’t care about my nonfunctioning legs, or my swirling brain, or pounding limbs. "Annabeth!”

I hugged her close, squeezing her tight, swallowing all my fear I just had, that I just went through, and telling her it was okay, this was all okay. 

And it was, for a second.

There was a pregnant pause. I slowly began to become aware. She was as tall as me.  _She was as tall as me._

I pulled away to study her face, trying not to panic. Her face was more angled. Her chin was sharper, her cheekbones more prominent, her curly hair longer, and she had more weight carried on her shoulders. She was so, so much older.

She was my age. 

I probably would’ve said “What happened?” or “What’s wrong with you?” or “What’s going on with your face?”- I know, I’m very sweet when I’ve woken up from five years of pine cone slumber- but somehow what came out instead was, “Luke?”

Annabeth clenched her teeth. I couldn’t stop staring. She was so much…  _older._ And then I realized her silence only meant one thing, and my heart ripped.

“He’s alive,” Chiron gave me a great poker face. My heart leaped, and sunk, and stayed ripped, all at once. Where-? There were too many questions still remaining, too many new ones coming up from the old ones that were just answered. I had trouble breathing for a bit before I told myself very sternly, very sharply, to get it together. I am Thalia. I will not let this control me. I am not dead, and that’s what matters. We were all going to figure it out. 

“He’ll be discussed after… We discuss you. And you’ll be discussed after we get you cleaned up. You should get some rest, child. You’re going to need it for the stories that will be shared tomorrow.”


End file.
